Web-based Visualization and Evaluation of Convection-Allowing Ensembles in the 2018 HWT Spring Forecasting Experiment

Since the mid-2000s, scientific advances and growing computer resources for numerical weather prediction (NWP) have opened the door to experimental, real-time convection-allowing model (CAM) ensemble forecast systems through which a broad range of successful forecasting applications have been demonstrated. Fully exploiting real-time CAM ensembles for operational applications has required the development of new data extraction, post-processing and visualization strategies. To this end, a new post-processing and web display suite was implemented for the 2018 Spring Forecasting Experiment (SFE) in the NOAA Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT). The flagship component of this suite is a web-based forecast tool for displaying real-time data from CAM ensembles, including subsets of the Community Leveraged Unified Ensemble (CLUE), in addition to other NWP and observational datasets. The forecast tool provides SFE participants the capability to draw and submit experimental polygon-based forecasts while interacting directly with the underlying model and observational guidance. Other components of the new web suite include interfaces for post-event comparative evaluation of both CAM ensemble forecasts and the SFE participant experimental forecasts, along with an interactive display of objective verification metrics computed using the Model Evaluation Tools (MET) package. The software framework and practical applications of the web display processing system will be discussed, along with plans for expanding its scope and capabilities.